Future UMD movies are region free?

I have to commend Sony for openly embracing import gamers. The PSP and the PlayStation 3 are region free for games, but not for movies. The latter is understandable considering movie studios are stuck with draconian product control that has a thankfully easy work around in the form of a region free DVD player. UMDs are a different story because they are region encoded and there isn’t a simple fix if you are using official PSP firmware.

However, the new MTV releases indicate a change of pace. All of them have an “all” region label instead of a number indicating the region next to them. Perhaps, this is only for MTV UMDs or this is some kind of packing oversight. I hope neither of these are the case and Sony plans to make the video format completely region free, especially if anime studios start selling entire series as cheap as the UMD Aeon Flux collection.

@Ryu – Wait, they still can’t do that? I thought that deal was over when the PSP finally came out. Please educate me, I might have to revoke my statement!

http://akatsuki.co.uk akatsuki

Woohoo! No wait… who cares? They should have put an HD in the PSP a long time ago.

ibun

“I have to commend Sony for openly embracing import gamers.”

i live in germany and i hardly feel embraced. most of asian exporters, dont send anything to europe, some doenst even send software anymore although only exports to commercial importers are forbidden. euros dont feel embraced, more like a small child who is allowed to watch other childs play but doesnt allow to play itself.

thaKingRocka

of all companies, sony was the last i expected to go region-free. i’m so happy this is happening, but i’m afraid now that it’s here, i may not even be able to take advantage of it. i have two region 2 umds, but it’s really about the games. unfortunately, there is yet to be a japan-only 2d fighter released for the ps3. this is my real reason for owning a japanese ps2. well, that and initial d. i really want to see initial d on ps3 or 360. i’d prefer a region free version on 360, but i’ll take a ps3 version one any day. in 13 years of playstation gaming, region free is the only sony move i can actually applaud. now if they would just give me a reason to be happy that i have a region free ps3.

JojoTheSlayer

But who really cares?
Would you really want to import a UMD movie?
If your that into movies DVD quality should be a bare minimum!

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